'Tra' & L.J. due back, not Dawk or Lito
Herremans makes quick return from knee injury | Philadelphia Daily News | 10/13/2007
There are knee surgeries, and then there are knee surgeries.
Many victims of ACL tears agree Donovan McNabb won't be all the way back from his injury until a full year has passed since he was hurt - a date still more than a month away.
Eagles left guard Todd Herremans had arthroscopic surgery during the bye week to clean out cartilage. Yesterday, he declared himself ready to face the New York Jets tomorrow.
"My knee feels a lot smoother - it doesn't catch as much" since the surgery, Herremans said. "I feel good. I'm very happy with the training staff and myself, that we were able to put this together, and here we are, ready to go play the Jets, 10 days later, so that's a big credit to them."
What Herremans is doing isn't unprecedented - right tackle Jon Runyan remembers center Mark Stepnoski playing a little more than a week after a cartilage cleanout, when they were Tennessee Titans teammates in the 1990s. But it is unusual. Most people involved in the situation thought when the week began that Herremans was more likely to play in the next game, Oct. 21 at home against the Bears.
"He's a tough kid. What he's done is unbelievable," said coach Andy Reid, who credited head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder and the surgeon, team physician Peter DeLuca. "He's gotten treatment, after treatment, after treatment.
"The thing that he was able to do was keep the swelling down. In that kind of situation . . . you're just cutting a piece of cartilage away; you're not having to go in and repair something and sew it back together. So, that helps, but that's the kind of kid he is - very, very tough and determined. His mind-set right from the get-go was to play."
Herremans acknowledged he was "a little bit surprised" to be ready to play.
"I had it in my mind that I wanted to be back for this game. I wasn't sure it was going to be possible, because I've never had any kind of surgery before, but it definitely feels good," he said.
Herremans apparently will be joined tomorrow by left tackle William "Tra" Thomas, who practiced Thursday and yesterday and is listed as probable. Thomas' absence was a major factor in the Eagles' 12-sack disaster against the Giants just before the bye.
Also expected to enter the fray, in at least a limited role, is tight end L.J. Smith, who has missed two games since undergoing surgery to clean out scar tissue and drain fluid from a groin injury.
Smith was much less dynamic than usual in the two games he played before the procedure. Reid was asked what sort of Smith he expects to see tomorrow.
"Well, he feels better now," Reid said. "He feels a little bit looser in that area. We'll just keep bringing him along - I'm not going to ask him to play the whole game, that's not what I'm going to do. He'll get in, we'll see how he feels, and try to be smart with this."
Herremans makes quick return from knee injury
Herremans makes quick return from knee injury
Linear Mode
